Biddeford man was once a “great employee,” says former boss he was on his way to kill

BIDDEFORD, Maine — A one-time “great employee” at an insurance agency who police said was speeding across Maine with designs of shooting his old boss had an arsenal of weapons in his sports car, and later told police he brought a loaded gun to a showing of the new “Batman” flick.

Timothy Courtois, 49, also had press clippings of last week’s Colorado movie theater massacre in his brand-new Mustang when police clocked him at 112 mph and pulled him over Sunday morning on the Maine Turnpike, police report.

Inside the car they found an AK-47 assault rifle, four handguns and several boxes of ammo, according to state police, who say they later discovered a machine gun and thousands of rounds of ammunition at his Biddeford home.

The startling discovery became even eerier, police added, when Courtois said he was driving to Derry, N.H., to shoot his “former employer.”

The once “great employee” abruptly “terminated himself” last week from the Rousseau Insurance Agency in Biddeford, where he worked for the past eight years and lived just three doors down, owner Marc Rousseau said.

“Sometimes things happen in a person’s life that disrupt the way you behave,” Rousseau said, adding that Courtois sent him a note last week saying he was terminating his employment last Wednesday.

Rousseau said he last saw Courtois Saturday morning when he pulled up in his brand new 2013 black Mustang. “He wanted to show it to me,” Rousseau said. “He was Tim being Tim again.”

Rousseau said Courtois’ father had worked in law enforcement all his life. Courtois’ father declined comment at his home.

The disturbing arrest rattled Courtois’ neighbors. Jeanne Mailhiot, 56, said Courtois was a private person who ordered a lot of Chinese food takeout.

Mailhiot said she saw Courtois dotting on his new car in the driveway Saturday — and so did her 12-year-old car-buff grandson. “It’s just so scary to think he had (those guns) in his car,” Mailhiot said.

Courtois volunteered that he hid a gun inside a backpack when he attended a Saturday night showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” at a Saco, Maine, Cinemagic theater. The allegation came just a day after police say a deranged gunmen burst into a packed showing of the summer blockbuster in Aurora, Colo., and opened fire, killing a dozen people and injuring 58 others in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

A theater manager in Maine yesterday referred all questions to a Cinemagic spokesman, who didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Courtois was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail at his arraignment in Springvale District Court on initial charges of having a concealed weapon and criminal speed. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland is also reviewing the case to see if additional federal charges will be filed.